


Brave

by tosca1390



Category: West Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tosca1390/pseuds/tosca1390
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m sorry if the quote was a lot of trouble,”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave

**Author's Note:**

> Post-ep for _Ellie_. Written for West Wing Secret Santa at LiveJournal.

*

“Ellie.”

Swallowing down a lukewarm gulp of coffee, Ellie looked up to see CJ hovering over her, lanky and rested. Without her regular workday attire, she looked relaxed, at ease, less intimidating. It reminded Ellie of early moments from the campaign, back when she thought her dad was just speaking to the issues and keeping Hoynes honest; before it turned into a marathon she wasn’t trained for in the least.

“Hi,” she said, corralling her meticulous notes from her last lecture in introductory oncology. The papers slid easily towards her across the smooth wood. Unwittingly, she’d taken up an entire table in the mess with her school work. For most of the morning, she had been the only one in the mess, so it hadn’t bothered her; now, she felt self-conscious, like she didn’t belong.

“I didn’t know you were still here,” CJ said. “Can I sit?”

Ellie nodded, mouth going dry with nerves as CJ folded herself into the chair to her right. “I thought I’d stay to see Mom,” she said after a moment. “Take advantage of the free food. I eat a lot of soup and English muffins at school.”

CJ smiled, tucking her light blue cardigan closer over her chest. “The mess is hard to beat. I like Italian Tuesdays, myself.”

The call to Danny hovered between them like a dark bird, a malignant cloud. “I’m sorry if the quote was a lot of trouble,” Ellie said after a moment.

CJ shrugged easily, her fingers curled around a to-go cup, steam curling up across her face. “I’m used to trouble. I’m just used to getting it from your other sisters.”

Both Zoey and Liz had called Ellie yesterday, between the Oval Office and the movie, both pleased and shocked; she hadn’t mentioned the yelling in the Oval. She didn’t want Liz’s condescending advice, or Zoey’s misguided sympathy. Neither of them really understood.

 

“It probably won’t happen again,” she said after a moment, ducking her head back to her textbook. “You can stick to Zoey and Liz.”

“I think it was brave,” CJ went on, leaning back in the chair.

At that, Ellie looked up again. “I’m sorry?”

“Brave,” CJ repeated, her face serious, her eyes kind. “It made me want to quit for an hour, sure—but I still think you were brave to say it. It was adult, and grown-up. It was important for everyone to see that about you.”

Her face flushed, but Ellie, still remembering her father’s stinging reproach from yesterday, kept her chin up. “Doctors need to be able to tell the truth,” she said simply. “I thought it was important.”

CJ nodded. “Me too.”

Around them, the mess was fairly quiet and slow. Ellie had been there since eight in the morning; with her eyes still scratchy from crying during Dial M for Murder, she stirred from her guest room in the White House and made her way through the maze of corridors. Her father had lent her a sweatshirt, warm and loose on her limbs; it smelled like home.

She hadn’t seen her father since last night, after a late night of ice cream and a drink in his private study. He’d promised her lunch sometime today, but it was almost one in the afternoon. Her mother still wasn’t back.

“When was my mom supposed to arrive?” she asked abruptly.

CJ blinked. “When?”

“My dad said she was coming back today, in the morning. Did she get delayed?” Ellie pressed.

The lines around CJ’s eyes hardened just for a moment, her face settling into a press-friendly veneer. “Actually, she changed her schedule late last night. She’s going directly to Manchester,” she said lightly.

An alarm went off in the distant part of Ellie’s mind, flitting between text notes and diagrams of the degrees of severity of bone cancer. “I see,” she said after a moment. She didn’t know what that meant, but it wasn’t good.

CJ sighed, her hair falling straight across her cheek. “It’s nice to have you around, Ellie. You should come down more often. Makes us all look smarter,” she said with a grin, standing up. She nodded her head and strode off towards the stairs.

Ellie ducked her head and smiled slightly; it was moments like that, with CJ, and Charlie yesterday, that made her want to come and be with these people. It had been like this early on, with Josh who’d been wildly enthusiastic; CJ, who’d always been smart and fun to be around; Sam and Toby, bizarrely in sync. They had and still worked so hard for her father, who she could barely understand; if she could learn from them, perhaps she would work out his mysteries for herself too.

*


End file.
